I was preparing for confirmation class tonight when I came across this passage from Philippians:

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Philippians 4:4-7

Fantastic stuff, good for the soul, challenging for life. It makes it sound so simple. I want to be the one who makes it clear to all that I meet that I am on their side!

For the next two weeks, I am going to spend some time in the neighborhood knocking on doors and inviting people to breakfast and church on Mother's Day. I always get excited about doing that a week or so before I actually do it. Then when the time comes, I love to find ways to avoid it!

According to Myers-Briggs, I'm an extrovert, but I must be a shy extrovert!

I don't know if it was there, or maybe there because I was consciously or subconsciously looking for it. Or if God just chose to reveal God's self to me through my scripture reading reading this morning--I guess that's the most likely. All of the scriptures pointed to action, what we do...our (gasp) works.

Relationship with God is a free gift from God. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) However, that salvation, that relationship, is not there unless evidenced by what we do. That is the clear understanding of scripture.

And it is a principle of life. No one cares what I believe, very, very few care what I write or say. Everyone cares what I do. Am I exuding grace, forgiveness, and love? Am I lightening someone's load? Am I facilitating their path toward God? That's what matters.